Building Your Midas Touch
“Entrepreneurs are all unique. One way to build a business and turn it into a brand is to know who you are.” – Midas Touch
Spoken from a true wealth creator…. So how do you really build your “unique” brand today given all the noise out there?
I thought I’d share those few tips with you in light of my own personal experience over the last 30 years.
1. Be yourself
Your personal brand is just that–you. If you try to manufacture something that’s not genuine, it will be obvious to others and immediately make you less compelling. Instead, focus on your unique talent or passion whether people like it or not.
Virgin founder Richard Branson is a great example of this. He has said that his brand revolved around “finding new ways to help people have a good time.” Branson didn’t go to college, his ideas are unconventional, and his business goals are over the top. He has though consistently stayed true to his brand, ideas, personality, and unique genius. His focus on keeping his business brand aligned with his personal brand has helped him become a huge success.
2. Know your “why”
Why are you doing what you do? What is your purpose and mission? The answers to these questions should be central to your work.
The late Apple founder Steve Jobs is another case in point: Apple. The company’s “why” is about creating user-friendly, cutting-edge technology products that can improve everyday life. Once again, the business brand seems well aligned with the personal brand of its founder. Your “why” needs to be seamlessly incorporated into your story, your marketing, and your product. One way Apple has done so is through its approach to customer support to help improve your life. Are you practicing what you are preaching?
3. Know your target real well
You will not appeal to every client or customer and so what? Who really cares? There is a particular kind of person or audience that is going to respond to what you bring to the table. You need to figure out what kind of client will respond to you so you can hone your message accordingly. Knowing who you are marketing to is essential in order to connect authentically with them. Just don’t get caught up in the trap of wanting to be everything to everyone — or you will end up being nothing to nobody.
JetBlue is a great example. The airline serves Dunkin’ Donuts coffee on its flights. This was a strategic choice for them. There are a number of different brands of coffee they could have partnered with. They chose Dunkin’ Donuts because of the similarity in the brands and similar target market. They want to make their customer feel more at home on their flights and that they are the right airline for them.
4. Believe in yourself
When I was in the beginning stages of my career, my father encouraged me to get an engineering degree from a top Ivy League college such as Stanford or MIT given my real strength in math and analytics. I didn’t feel like the right step for me. However, in the early stages of building my career, I was nervous and insecure. What if he was right? What if the only path to success was being an engineer?
I followed my gut feeling that it was not the right path for me. Years later, I know that not following his advice was the best thing for me. I am thankful I had the confidence to listen to my gut and not do what would have been the right decision for him, not me. Later on in life, I started working with two close friends who were also building their own business from scratch. They were able to give me the support that I needed to keep going. They were able to see that creating my own path to success was right for me and gave me daily encouragement to believe in myself. That support made a huge difference in my ability to build a business that was right for me–and with it, my own personal brand
Now go out and make it big time. Start believing in yourself and live your dream.
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